oh right, that economic crisis
by Aaron Rodriguez
Published: January 18, 2008
“Economists and politicians are finally waking up to what many of America’s families already know - that we might be sliding into a recession.” - Hillary Clinton 1/11/08
While I appreciate Senator Clinton’s sentiments, some one should really get her caught up with the rest of the country. The only people who are “finally waking up” to this crisis are the presidential candidates. Economists have been discussing this problem for months, and there are certainly politicians who have been focusing on this issue for some time. The problem is that the only politicians the media focuses on care more about image than substance. As a whole they’ve stuck to the issues that they believe will garner the most interest; as a result, foreign policy consists only of Iraq and domestic policy focuses exclusively on healthcare.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not criticizing anyone for focusing on those topics. But at a certain point, one must wonder if these candidates are capable of real leadership or at the very least some foresight. The economy has only become relevant because of the Michigan primaries. Now that they have to compete for a state with 7.4% unemployment, they’ve all realized that healthcare isn’t the only financial concern of the American working class. A few months ago, however, this issue was the farthest thing from the candidates’ minds.
To be fair, the media wasn’t pushing this story with any significant force. No, they were more concerned with Romney’s religion and Clinton’s “likeability.” Who cares if the subprime mortgage industry collapsed - we’ve got to debate the level of Barack Obama’s “blackness.” Rather than picking up on ominous signs, like increasingly high foreclosure rates shrinking consumer confidence, the media swept the issue under the rug. Now, as recession nears, the politicians are scrambling to play catch up on the issue.
True to form, the candidates’ proposals seem shallow at best. Mitt Romney suggests that we eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends for families that earn less than $200,000 a year. That’s a relief, because as we all know the capital gains tax has been crippling the working class for years. Finally, your average Joe in Iowa can collect dividends from his stock portfolio without fear of government intervention.
Giuliani’s proposal is similar to Romney’s, only it also includes tax breaks for corporations. Of course, all of this is irrelevant as Giuliani isn’t even all that sure that a recession is coming anyway.
Huckabee figures that spending more money on defense and infrastructure will do the trick, while McCain suggests eliminating the alternative minimum tax is way to go. Though, like Giuliani, McCain is going to continue to monitor the situation to see what, if anything, needs to be done.
On the other side of the aisle the democrats don’t fare much better.
Clinton’s plan amounts to little more than shelling out money to assist those hit hardest by the crisis. She would use $70 billion to repel a possible recession. This money would go towards extending unemployment insurance, heating assistance, energy efficiency and other unspecified ways to help low and middle class families. While her plan certainly seems better than any of the republican proposals, when closely examined it seems more focused on stopping the bleeding than healing the wound.
Obama’s plan is similar, albeit with tax cuts and social security bonuses. His plan feels a little light, as if he’s not quite sure what to do, but he knows he has to say something.
John Edwards, who has been bouncing around anti-recession measures since last month, focuses on employment more than anything else. He suggests an initial $25 billion aimed at job creation, followed by $75 billion towards other projects as things get worse. Of all of the proposals, Edwards certainly comes out looking the best. His ideas regarding “green infrastructure” and employment tackle several issues at the same time, and as a whole his proposals make a more efficient use of resources.
One thing is clear, though. Not one single candidate is moving away from the band-aid style solutions that the two-party system is so tied to. Each one of these plans addresses how to best recover from a recession, not one of them addresses the reasons why we’re headed in a recession to begin with. Helping out those affected by this crisis is very important, but one would hope that our leaders would try to figure out exactly how and why there was a crisis at all.
If these politicians hope to be true leaders, they need to do more than clean up our nation’s messes. They need to stop the messes before they even happen.
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